Tricycle | Awake in the World

A few years back—not long before revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib—U.S. Army Specialist Benjamin Thompson wrote us from the soon-to-become notorious prison site with a simple request: Could we send him a few issues of Tricycle for support in his meditation practice?

Thompson's unit had arrived at Abu Ghraib to replace those who were later implicated in the routine abuse that Iraqi prisoners had suffered at the hands of their American captors. In an old bathroom, Thompson set up a makeshift meditation room, improvising a cushion with a sack and bits of clothing. We did send him a few issues, along with meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg's email address. Salzberg had generously offered to make herself available to Thompson by email through the rest of his tour, and the two have since become good friends.